My cat needs a job

*PaulKroll* · 09-16-2003, 01:00 AM

Well... I was going to buy a condo. But instead, I'll just lament.

Two years ago, around this time of year, one of my two cats, Sparkle, stopped eating. Couldn't keep her food down. It's not unusual for cats to toss their cookies, so I wasn't particularly concerned... until she spat up foam.

That can't be good.

So the emergency room says she may have an obstruction. The primary vet the next day says no food/water for a day and then see what happens. No dice.

After bringing her in for the local vet hospital's founder to look at, and checking the x-ray, the barium series, and someone who has a freakin' PhD in animal x-ray-stuff (radiology? I forget), they're still not sure there's anything in her stomach... but there might be. Just hard to tell.

So I say, sure, crack open my little girl, why not, it's only a risk to her life...

Nothing. Empty. They biopsy everything: she's fine as far as all tests can tell. The last working theory is that she had a delayed reaction to her vaccinations, given a week before the incident started. (Usually, a cat with a reaction is on death's door minutes after getting the shot, so they're still in the vets office and can be saved.) A delayed reaction is very rare, but it's just about all that explains the symptoms. Total cost? $3,000. Then Sparkle pulls out one of her staples, and we add $100 for another trip to the emergency room for a staple and a kitty collar that makes her look like a fuzzy-faced version of Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth"..

She's been fine since then... until just a few days ago. When she was having trouble keeping food down again. This is far too strong a memory for me, so I do the no food/water for a day just to get that out of the way. Doesn't help. Vet time.

Oh joy: she's jaundiced. Something has gone seriously wrong with her liver. $800 of emergency treatment and tests later: it's hepatic lipidosis, fatty liver syndrome. The treatment is feeding: but when cats have FLS, they don't feel like eating. And this one takes to force feeding... poorly. The way a buffalo fits into a pencil sharpener... poorly. So it's tube-into-the-stomach-time. And now she's home. And I have to, over the next 4 to 8 weeks (or more! Could be 20!) wake up every four hours and go through a little procedure to inject a liquid-food-for-kittys into her stomach tube.

Oh joy.

The tube? Surgically implanted for just $600! Along with the rest of the tests and materials and the two-year-ago charges? We've just broken the $5,000 mark for this cat! Goodbye condo! Credit cards I was so close to closing out? Near max again!

At least this time she isn't wearing a piece of olde English clothing, and making me want to ask her where the sea hawks are hiding every time she walks into the room.

Sigh.

*TVB* · 09-16-2003, 01:06 AM

Ohhhh, Paul, that sucks. I need to go hug my kitties now.

Betsy

*Melissa* · 09-16-2003, 01:23 AM

Ugggh. Hope your lil one is feeling better soon.

Know how it can feel with those vet bills...as the owner of three dogs, believe me, I feel your pain. (Our German Shepherd isn't doing all that hot and we've gone through testing, meds, money (and vets) to try to figure it out. Think they've finally decided degenerative disk disease is the cause of all of her problems (but the meds don't seem to be helping, so wondering if there's not something else as well...:/)

Anyway, all that blabbering was just to say not to feel alone and hang in there.

dank · 09-16-2003, 01:23 AM

And my neighbors keep asking why I haven't gotten any pets (or kids) yet...

Dan

*Randall* · 09-16-2003, 01:37 AM

I'll go hug the cats I'm sitting for this week.

But I'm with Dan -- I don't want pets of my own. I'm happy just to visit.

Randall

*TVB* · 09-16-2003, 01:40 AM

Randall,

You house sit alot. I'm beginning to worry that you don't have your own residence

Betsy

*Randall* · 09-16-2003, 02:03 AM

Seems that way lately.

But so far it's only five weeks out of the year -- probably less next year, unless I start getting referrals.

Randall

*Randall* · 09-16-2003, 05:43 PM

This year's housesitting assignment in Monroe is being cut short. The owners had the misfortune of picking the Outer Banks as their vacation spot.

Randall

**Deb** · 09-16-2003, 06:10 PM

Uggg, Paul we do feel your, and your wallet's, pain!!!

This is Brigg. Brig found Terra over 15 years ago when he was just a kitten. He has been "Terra's cat/friend" ever since. Of course he's been the kid's and my buddy as well for the past 6 years or so. He too ended up jaundice and it was his liver. Unfortunately he suffered complete failure in not only the liver but the kidneys too. We had to make the extremely difficult decision to put Brigg to sleep on June 5th of this year.

I don't bring up Brigg to scare you but rather to share that we do understand and to explain that I did a LOT of reading about fatty liver during that time, as we too had discussed the tube option prior to finding out that Brigg was much worse off than that. The positive side of the research was finding out that MANY cats have come through the trial as long as their owners are willing and able to get the funds together, and of course the time. It does take a lot of work and attention but once their liver heals...boom... you've got your buddy back for life. I don't know the whole situation with Sparkle but I do know that Brigg was quick to become dehydrated so be sure Sparkle is getting water (Even if it has to go down the hard way).

From a family that wasn't able to make it to the tube.... we wish you the absolute best to pull through this, and if Sparkle is anything like Brigg was, I can guarantee you that she'll fight as hard as she can to get well. Cats are extremely stubborn in the area and thus, with your help, she should do wonderfully

Deb
- To those w/o pets -- Think fish

*PaulKroll* · 09-17-2003, 12:58 AM

Sorry to hear about your loss. I've only had to put one animal to sleep, and that was Axle (my first cat). He made it to 17, despite occasionally being dressed up by my mother and thus, being about as humiliated as a cat could be. ("Paul, look at my new... DUCK!" and there's Axle, sporting a duck bill mask over his face, with a look in his eyes like "The old woman: tonight I KILL her!"). Have to admit crying like a baby the whole time, in a macho, manly way of course.

Sparkle appears to be doing well, now that she's not at the hospital. She just lays on my lap and purrs while I go through the annoying procedure. The fact that I can't do this during the day, while I'm at work, makes it a bit scary, but she's increasingly active and still hasn't started fighting the procedure, so I'll take the pluses I can get.

I'll try to watch for dehydration. Water is put in before and after the feedings, and I do leave water out for the cats (fresh water... OK, OK, fresh FILTERED water...) every day... but I don't know for sure who drinks during the day. Of course, the feeding is mostly water too, right now. And she'll be going in for follow up and the complete wallet-ectomy on Saturday.

- Also once came home and picked up Axle, and noticed something odd. "Mom... why does Axle have minty fresh breath?" "His breath was so bad I brushed his teeth with Crest!" I informed her that she was not to do that again; I never found out what toothbrush she had used, and now I don't want to know.